Alex and Sam "out on the town"

Day-one dads go skiing

The security tunnel @ LAX

For a trip I took for work, the agency our company used scheduled me on connecting flights (1h 30m layover) in TWO DIFFERENT TERMINALS.

I had to transfer from the United terminal at LAX to the Delta terminal, and was freaking out that I would have to go back through security and miss my plane… I had been in a pissy mood all day because of my worry. I had called both United AND Delta to ask them if there was any tunnel to get me through without hitting security.

When I got to the airport I asked the security guards and they told me to “walk all the way back past the Ruby Tuesday’s and find the stairway down and you’ll see a secure tunnel to the other terminal.”

I was in heaven.

Wrong door, Sam...

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Sidney and Papa

"Papa, you're a nice guy"

Nathan's said tonight at the dinner table...

Holiday skating

My young bride and I took the day off (of work, and kids) to spend some time together. We went to Union square to go ice skating to get in the holiday mood!!

A fantastic lunch at "out the door" and some window shopping rounded out our day.

Then, back home to find the kids (who we missed!) and a yummy home-made turkey and stuffing dinner.

Cavallo Point

We all gathered at Cavallo Point in Sausalito for B.'s surprise birthday party. It was wonderful!

I (heart) San Francisco

When I got in my car today to leave the officethe temperature outside of my car was 100F.

30 minutes later, when I reached the city, the temperature had fallen to a lovely 70F.

I (heart) SF!

At the pool

Intense moments before jumping in. Athlete, with coach, thinking through his
balloon face-underwater and paddle-paddle-kick-kick-kick strategy...

Sam and Alex

A friend of ours offered to take a picture of my bride and I while we were at the picnic.

We don't get many chances to be on the receiving end of a camera!

Working Lunch @ the "Good Earth" Cafe

Bonne fete des peres, papa!

Sidney

The hat malfunction

Or, "how Nathan and I survived the battle of the bouncy palm trees."

NYC Taxi "progress?"

Nathan and Papa

Semaine a La Baule

C'etait notre premiere fois a La Baule. Nous sommes arrives le 16 novembre, Mamie, Nathan, Sidney en TGV, Sam et Papie, en voiture. Ses kilometres de plages de sables nous ont conquis tout de suite. Notre location etait tres bien situee, sur la plage et en face du port du Pouliguen.

Notre cure de Thalasso (a Mamie et moi) a demarre le lundi. Mardi, je me tordais la cheville en allant voir Sidney au Baby Club. Apres radio, etc. il fut conclu qu'il vallait mieux utiliser des bequilles le reste de la semaine... Bien que estropiee et franchement epuisee par tout ce "trempage" dans l'eau de mer (au point de vouloir aller se coucher sans diner!), j'ai adore les soins et espere y retourner une autre annee... toute seule avec Maman!

Pendant que nous etions a la cure, Papie, Sam et Nathan allaient se ballader. Une des sorties favorites de Nathan etait d'aller aux tobogans sur la plage. Le mercredi et samedi, nous etions de visite obligatoire aux maneges du Pouliguen mais pour regarder seuleument. Nathan ne voulait absolument pas y monter!


Quant a Sam, il n'avait jamais eu autant de travail et il se souviendra sans doute toujours de son onterminable quete d'une connection Wifi. Apres plusieurs jours bredouille, il decouvrit enfin le Jam'z, un bar offrant une connection a ses clients. C'est alors au Jam'z ou assis devant le Jam'z que Sam a passe sa semaine a La Baule.

Puis, ce fut le retour en TGV. Tata et Ruben etaient venus nous chercher a la gare Montparnasse.

My birthday

Today was my birthday, and it was a doozy.  Besides lots of phone calls, emails, and "facebook" posts from friends and family, Nathan and Alex sang me "Happy Birthday" and after the kids were both asleep I had a lovely dinner (thanks Alex) and then played with my new Wii (thanks, Alex!!!!)!

At work there were two birthdays... and Elmer (turned 30) and I (gasp.... 37) shared a "Princess" birthday cupcake cake.  I took the pink princes, since it matched my shirt and the bubblegum I had in my mouth when they brought the cake out.

New Orleans

So I ended up heading out to New Orleans for an F5 partner summit the last few days -- I hadn't been since pre-Katrina.

It was pretty astonishing to see the damage and empty buildings that we saw on the drive in from the airport, even this far after the event.

I was not at all surprised to see that Bourbon street was still the same hot, sticky, smelly, and sophomoric environment with lots of booze and bad judgement all around... fun, but in VERY small doses.